Mixed results for business magazines in October

Business magazines reported results in terms of ad revenue and pages that were all over the place in October, with publications such as the Economist, Forbes and Fortune showing gains from the same month a year ago, but others reporting a drop, according to data posted on the Magazine Publishers of America web site.

The Economist reported the biggest gains, with a 26.2 percent gain in ad dollars to $8.7 million and an 8.7 percent increase in pages to 216.25 for October.

Other results include:

— Business 2.0 saw a 25 percent decrease in ad sales to $3.5 million and a 28 percent decrease in ad pages.

— BusinessWeek magazine posted a 3.6 percent decline in ad sales to $38.9 million for the month, but a 4 percent increase in ad pages to 342.

— Fast Company showed a 19.4 percent rise in ad sales to $3.2 million and a 12.4 percent jump in pages to 46.39.

— Forbes posted a 6.3 percent increase in ad sales to $59.6 million for October and a 3.3 percent rise in ad pages to 605.7.

— Fortune reported an 8.7 percent rise in ad sales to $39.5 million and a 2.6 percent increase to 375.27.

— Inc. magazine had a 1.6 percent decline in ad sales to $6.8 million and a 5.1 percent drop in ad pages to 69.5.

— Kiplinger’s Personal Finance saw its ad sales drop by nearly 31 percent to $3.1 million and its fall drop 28.5 percent.

— Money magazine’s ad sales rose 9.8 percent to $17.4 million, while its pages rose 3.6 percent to 102.7.

— Smart Money, which hired a new executive editor last week, posted a 6.4 percent decline in ad sales to $4.8 million and a 12.9 percent decline in pages to 62.6.

See all of the statistics here. The year-to-date numbers are here, and they show Business 2.0, The Economist, Forbes, Inc. and Smart Money have posted increases in ad revenue for the first 10 months of the year.